Testing a Prototype with InVision and Usertesting.com

• As of 26th February InVision no longer offers a direct integration with UserTesting.com. However you can still use the share prototype link in UserTesting.com.

As a student one of the hardest things to do is properly test your designs. You can carry out quick usability tests with people in the street or your friends etc but unless you have a camera or can connect to a laptop it’s difficult to record the findings as they happen. This means you might miss things or forget important observations.

Unmoderated testing is an option here however it can be very expensive, with one test on usertesting.com coming in at $71 (£51 ish). So when I found out that InVision was offering three free, 5 minute usability tests a month in conjunction with UserTesting.com I was very happy. The only catch was I only found this out on the 19th of February.. a week before they were stopping it.

I went into overdrive trying to get the final design of my app finished so I could carry out some tests on it. Using Craft for Sketch saved my life here because I didn’t have to physically upload new screens each time I made a change or created a new screen.

Finally on the 21st I finished my screens. At least to the point were it was acceptable to test them.

I carried out three tests in quick succession. Two had some good content and feedback but the last one was entirely unusable.

Unfortunately it’s sometimes the case when you’re testing wireframes or prototypes that the person testing it doesn’t fully understand the scenario or what prototypes are and so get frustrated when the ‘app’ doesn’t do everything they expect it, or when things they are clicking on don’t work. They focus on this rather than critiquing what they can do within the prototype. It can be frustrating but two out of three isn't bad for remote testing.

The first tester was an American man who navigated easily around the app and genuinely seemed to enjoy the premise and prompted us to continue with what we were doing.

The second tester was an American woman who had a bit more difficulty in the beginning but by the end was navigating around easily enough. She had some good feedback but also pointed out some small things she liked within the app which is always nice to hear.

If I had the money I would carry out at least 5 tests as this it the number generally accepted by most to cover 80% of issues which will affect 100% of your users. You can read more about it here. But as I am only testing designs on InVision a few tests are enough to get an idea if i’m going in the right direction.

Kelsey. x

p.s. this article look ridiculous with two massive videos on it but you can’t resize them (as far as I can tell). Sorry!